Guidelines Help Parents Decide What's Best to Feed
Baby

Guidelines to help parents determine what's best to feed their infants
and toddlers are being developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators.

The new guidelines, developed by the Children's Nutrition Research
Center (CNRC)
in Houston, Texas, the American
Dietetic Association and Gerber Foods
Products company, fill an information gap. That's because much of the
available nutrition information has been intended mainly for children ages 2
years and up, or for infants under 6 months. The new guidelines are meant for
toddlers between those ages.

Taking the lead for CNRC are
Nancy
Butte and
William
Heird, both professors of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and the CNRC. The two
were part of the panel of leading pediatric experts who developed the new
guidelines, which were prompted in part by the growing problem of childhood
obesity. Health care providers need a better foundation for making infant and
toddler feeding recommendations, and they need better tools for communicating
the importance of establishing healthy habits in early childhood.

The guideline's website, http://www.gerber.com/starthealthy,
provides content from the expert panel, including a comprehensive brochure with
tips and information on feeding young children. Guideline topics include coping
with food allergies and sensitivities, how to feed infants and develop
children's self-feeding skills, and the importance of physical activity.